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Gregory Iron Discusses His Relationship With Zach Gowen

October 22, 2019 | Posted by Jeremy Lambert

– Gregory Iron recently joined Wrestling Inc’s WINCLY podcast to discuss his relationship with Zach Gowen and more. Highlights are below.

On Being Born With Cerebral Palsy: “Well, I was born with cerebral palsy which is a neurological disorder which affects the way my body works. It’s noticeable in my right arm, hand, fingers and wrist. Cerebral palsy varies in different people – some people have it more severe. I got lucky as it’s a very mild case. It happened either before or after I was born but it wasn’t found until 11 months. Even at that point, they didn’t diagnose it as cerebral palsy as they just told my parents I had a stroke. It wasn’t until I was 11 or 12 that I was diagnosed.”

On Finding Wrestling: “My one escape became this thing I found on TV every morning called Superstars of Wrestling. My grandma was the one who got me into it and when I saw Hulk Hogan and these larger-than-life characters like Macho Man, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, I just got caught up in it. It didn’t matter how bad things were going in school or at home as I could just watch wrestling and everything would be okay. I never even considered wrestling because of my disability until I saw Zach Gowen wrestling on one leg that I thought to myself, ‘Maybe this is a possibility.'”

On Meeting Zach Gowen: “I pulled him aside for some advice and I was asking what I needed to do to make this work. He asked what I’m doing right now and I said wrestling and training. Then he goes, ‘Yeah, keep doing that.’ And that was pretty much it and he kinda brushed me off. I was almost in disbelief and tried to convince myself that he wasn’t being mean and was maybe just busy or preoccupied. But then a couple of days passed by and I thought he was kind of a dick. I held onto that for a little bit and whenever I did shows, promoters knew my situation and said, ‘Oh, we’d love to team you up with Zach Gowen.’ Zach was like in and out and what I didn’t understand at the time I met Zach was that he was heavily addicted to drugs. He was just a different guy.”

On His Relationship With Zach Gowen Now: “That was the start of it. It was one of those things that Zach didn’t realize when he was in WWE that he was inspiring me to become a wrestler. Then I didn’t realize that he was going through this struggle and that he needed to see someone like me to continue on his path as a pro wrestler and the encouragement to keep going. It’s pretty nice because you can’t write stories like that. Zach Gowen of 2019 is much more different than the Zach Gowen of 2006.”

On Wrestling with Cerebral Palsy: “Initially there was not a big concern about having the disability because it’s something I lived with all my life so I knew how to navigate it. My concern was that I never did anything athletic in my life. I never had the desire to play any sports…I was just concerned that I wouldn’t have an athletic bone in my body,” said Iron. “But my trainer would always propose challenges for me. He would say, ‘Today I’m gonna teach you a basic maneuver – a collar and elbow tie-up – and if you can’t do this, then I can’t continue training you.’ Looking back at it, I think he was trying to psyche me out because most wrestling trainers will keep stealing your money to train you. People ask me, ‘How do you wrestle with cerebral palsy? How do you wrestle with one arm?’ My answer is, ‘I’ve never wrestled with two.’ It’s the only thing I know and if you have an obstacle or limitation, you figure out ways to adapt.”

article topics :

Gregory Iron, Jeremy Lambert